ZorkiKat ЗоркиКат Фотографий » Rangefinder Filipinas http://www.zorkikat.com Cameras. Cats. Photography Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:44:03 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 HOW NOT TO DESTROY YOUR FED AND ZORKI (A Basic Primer) http://www.zorkikat.com/how-not-to-destroy-your-fed-and-zorki-a-basic-primer/123/ http://www.zorkikat.com/how-not-to-destroy-your-fed-and-zorki-a-basic-primer/123/#comments Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:01:26 +0000 admin http://zorkikat.com/how-not-to-destroy-your-fed-and-zorki-a-basic-primer/123/ For newbies, applicable to most FED and Zorki cameras.

1. Do not force anything.  Despite their price or appearance, any FED or Zorki is a true precision machine that requires careful and proper handling.

2. Do not remove the lens unless necessary.  Most FED and Zorki are Leica type RFs whose lens can be removed.  Some exceptions are found though, like the Zorki 10/11 or the FED Boy, Atlas, or 50.

The instruction manuals for the older FED do not even recommend lens removal, adding a warning that doing so can damage the camera’s rf cam:

If the lens has to be removed, MAKE SURE THAT ITS SET TO 1 METRE.  Do the same when mounting it back.  The cam at the rear of the lens retracts at 1 metre, making the mount clear of any obstruction.

The camera RF cam (the sloped part shown in the picture) has to be at a specific angle.  If this moves, the RF’s focusing accuracy is compromised.  It will no longer focus accurately at close distances.

FED and Zorki rangefinders are adjusted for both infinity and close distances separately.

3. All FED and Zorki Leica types have rotating shutter dials.  Keep fingers or other objects off the dial when firing the shutter. At best, this will cause erratic exposures. At worst, it can make the shutter hang.

4. The speeds on the shutters on these camera are set by lifting and shifting the dials.  Lift first, then set turning the dial.
THIS MUST BE DONE ONLY WHEN THE SHUTTER IS COCKED.

Rotating dials can only be set when the shutter is cocked.  With some models, this would not permit correct shutter speed setting.   On models with SLOW SHUTTER SPEEDS (ZORKI 3, 4, and 4K; FED 3, 4, and 5), turning the shutter dial without cocking WILL DESTROY THE MECHANISM.

Some models do allow changing speeds before or after cocking.  These are models without slow speeds.  Their shutter dials are of the the “double dial” type- an outer dial which can be set, and an inner dial which does not move, and marked with an index arrow. FED-2 (on some versions only), Zorki-5, Zorki-6 and Zenit 3/3M/E/EM/B have this type of dials.

Single and Double speed dials found on two variants of the FED-2.  This dual-dial design was also used by Zorki-5 and -6, Zenit -E, -B, -3, and -3M.

BUT ITS BETTER TO ERR ON THE SAFE SIDE.  ALWAYS COCK BEFORE CHANGING SPEEDS.

5. On some models, do not shift or turn the dial between B and 1/500.  On cameras with slow speeds. the dial turns two ways- one towards 30 and another towards B.  Try to feel where the dial’s movement stops, and do not force it beyond that.

6.  With bottom loading cameras (FED-1, Zorki-1/S/2/2S/5), the film leader must be trimmed properly.  The modern short tongues of today’s films must be recut.  Not a difficult thing to do, but the cut must be correct- tongue is 10- 11cm long, gently tapering, and no cuts between perforations:

There is ONLY ONE WAY TO LOAD A BOTTOM LOADING CAMERA- THE CORRECT WAY:


Some have suggested tricks like inserting cards in the film channel.  THIS IS A STUPID WAY TO LOAD THE CAMERA.  It can damage the mechanism, scratch the pressure plate, and generally slower than the correct method.  Forget about these tricks or claims about them being ‘more efficient’ or ‘easier’.  The inventors who first designed these cameras knew what worked best- how can anyone else say otherwise?  And if the method requires lens removal, insertion of cards, holding shutters open, etc- how could that be faster than the ‘original’ procedure which requires only the removal of the baseplate and take-up spool?

A crazy, dubious, purportedly ‘better’ way to load film in a bottom loader…

NB: The long leader cut is not needed to load other FED or Zorki whose backs slide off or open for loading.

7. The Zorki-5 shutter MUST NOT BE FIRED without a lens on the camera.  This Zorki has a quirk in the layout of its parts. Without the lens in place, a part of the RF cam goes in the shutter speed control dial and can mesh with the parts.

8. The Shutters on these cameras have cloth blinds/curtains.  Do not touch them.  Also, do not point the camera towards the sun for extended lengths of time.  When lens is focused at infinity (or close to it) a tiny image of the sun is focused on the blind.  This can cause a pinhole to burn on the shutter.

9.DO NOT DISASSEMBLE THE CAMERA.  The temptation is there to make some adjustments.  But unless you know what you are doing, do not go beyond the usual minor cleaning and adjustment procedures.  FED and Zorki can be more difficult to calibrate than a Leica.

10. Do not leave the shutter tensed for long periods of time.  When storing the camera, make sure that the shutter is released.

The above do not apply to Kiev rangefinders.  They are a different breed of animal.

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]]> http://www.zorkikat.com/how-not-to-destroy-your-fed-and-zorki-a-basic-primer/123/feed/ 3 Zenit Naman! http://www.zorkikat.com/zenit-naman/46/ http://www.zorkikat.com/zenit-naman/46/#comments Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:13:45 +0000 admin http://zorkikat.com/zenit-naman/46/

The first Zenit was really an RF-SLR hybrid made by KMZ.  KMZ made Zorki.  The Zenit was actually the SLR version of the Zorki.  They started by ‘fusing’ the reflex housing and prism finder on the existing Zorki-1 body.  The Leica-shaped oblong body was retained.  The Leica-style  shutter was also retained, and a reflex-mirror viewing system was built around it.    The LTM 39 mount was also used.

This Zenit (-1) is from 1955.  The logo is in Script Cyrillic- so it reads like “3eHum”.  With a not-so-common Zenit M39 Industar-22 lens.  The lens was soon replaced in the later production runs with the more common Industar-50.

A new set of M39 (“ZM39″) lenses were made for the Zenit.  These lenses would not focus properly when used on RF Zorki or Leica; likewise the LTM39 lenses made for Zorki or Leica won’t focus properly.  When the latter are used on Zenit, they will act like close-focus lenses with a very limited focusing range of about 10-15 cms only.

The shutter style which first appeared in the Leica I and II was used in the Zenit.  And continued to be used in the succeeding models which used cloth curtain focal plane shutters.  They are still being made now, making these Zenit the only LIVING LINK to the original Leicas.

The Zenit-1 and Zenit-S (C) are, IMO, the C_U_T_E_S_T  SLRs ever made!

Zenit cameras, when 35mm film SLRs still reigned supreme, were often dismissed as worthless junk.  The pros shunned them, and the famous _______(fill with the SLR brand you know)-snobs refused to acknowledge their presence.   Zenit were seen cheap, unreliable, and incapable of shooting anything approaching ‘acceptable’ quality.  And curiously enough, most, if not all, of the Zenit detractors were people who, (1) haven’t handled a ‘live’ Zenit; (2) haven’t shot with a Zenit and seen what it does; (3) have impressions based on what they heard, read, or assumed.

Here are what they said- obviously based on uninformed opinion:

1. It came from the USSR (Zenit were, and are still made in Russia), so it’s bad and backward.  It is true that Zenit have less ‘advanced’ features- features which were found in cameras made a generation or two before in the west.  But most of these features were good and proven, so there wasn’t (at least in the socialist situation in the USSR then) any need to constantly put in more gimmicks as with products from the sales-competitive capitalist west.  And remember, the USSR was able to send satellites and people to space before anyone in the capitalist hemisphere did.

2. Only people who can’t afford ‘real’ cameras use it.  Zenit cost about 1/5 to 1/10 of what a Japanese equivalent SLR cost when new.  They still are cheap now, some can be found for $15 on eBay.   The low cost made them more accessible to people who didn’t have the means to get the known brands.  It was seen used by photographers who shot in churches and parks.  And often with students.   Zenit are real cameras in every respect.  The common Zenit  used a shutter which descended from the original Leica.    How much more ‘real’ can a camera be?

3. The shutter speed range of 1/30 – 1/500 is very limiting.  True, if one does a lot of slow exposures or action shots.  But when one thinks about it, 96% or more of all exposures taken are made in the 1/30 to 1/500 range….when was the last time  1/4 sec was used? And how often was it used? How about 1/2 or 1/10 sec?  Leica and many cameras ran on this “limited” speed range alone for years, and many excellent photos were produced despite this ‘limiting’ feature.

4. The lenses are incapable of making ‘sharp’ pictures.   Often heard from people who’ve only heard of Zenit.  The lenses found in Zenit are descendants of Carl Zeiss lenses.  The Russians also improved on these magnificent designs by using new glass and anti-reflection coatings.  The original Carl Zeiss lenses didn’t even have these.  The various “Helios-44″ 2/58mm lens versions commonly found with Zenit are really improvements on the Biotar.
Even the cheapest Industar-50 is really a Tessar offspring.  The others may well be Planars or Sonnars (like the Jupiter-9) in disguise.    The Japanese copied Zeiss lenses (as Nikkors or Serenars) when they were just starting out.  The Russians continued making and improving them.

5. Zenit were unreliable.   There were indeed bad apples.  Poor design and loose quality control aren’t exclusive to KMZ either. But many were quite excellent.  Some designs like the Zenit 11, 12XP, or the earlier ones are virtually indestructible.

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